Various types of mounting devices are known in the prior art. Some of these mounting devices are especially useful for marine vessels such as ships, boats, or the like, for mounting antennas for Loran equipment. These prior art antenna mounts are generally designed to be secured to a deck or bulkhead of a marine vessel, or the like, by means of a flat supporting plate that is secured to the deck or bulkhead of a marine vessel, and may be constructed of stainless steel or plastic. These prior art antenna mounts are designed to accommodate standard antenna base ferrules for securing antennas thereto and may include integral feed-through holes for the antenna cables.
It is desirable on a variety of ships or boats to secure antennae or other devices to railings located in various locations on the marine vessel. The railings may be disposed in various planes relative to the body of water that the vessel is supported in, including vertical, horizontal, or angular orientations. When the mount is used to secure an antenna, it is usually necessary that the antenna be in a plane normal to the plane of the water. The sensitivity of the antenna may vary with respect to its orientation relative to the electrical signal it is receiving and, therefore, any mount should have the capability of easy and varied orientation relative tothe rail it is mounted on to allow the antenna's position to be varied for maximizing the signal reception. It is desirable for a mount adapted to be secured to a rail or similar supporting member, to be designed for easy orientation thereof and preferably provide infinite positioning. At the present time, there are commercially available mounts that may be secured to a rail or the like on a marine vessel for securing antennae, barbecues, or the like. The prior art devices are in the form of C-clamps used with plastic sleeves mounted on the rail to prevent the C-clamp from marring the mounting rail. These clamps are of a simple construction and are generally employed to mount an antenna. There is also commercially available a gimbaled bracket that is mounted to a boat rail for supporting a barbecue thereon and which allows a commercially available barbecue to be universally mounted to a boat rail.